Reports, sports, music...my wheel house
Spring is spring…as it should be…amazing weather, rainy
weather, cold weather, windy weather, great water conditions, blown out mud
river conditions…all in the span of a few days or weeks. Spring in Nor Cal is
traditionally inconsistent at best, fishing and weather conditions…we have been
spoiled the last few years with consistent spring weather and river conditions.
Everyone expects March and April to be awesome weather…perfect 65-75 degrees,
no rain and great flows…well that equals a drought so as nice as that is and as
much as I want that I have to accept that spring is TRADITIONALLY and NORMALY inconsistent.
I find myself going “Ya I remember this…back 5-6 years ago”
Here is what is going on and if you are looking to book a
day I still have some late spring and Summer striper/trout dates open.
June 10, 13, 17, 27, 28,
July 6, 11, 13, 14, 25, 29,
Aug 1-3, 5, 6, 9, 20, 27
Evening Shad/bass
May 3, 5, 6, 16, 17, 18,
Fishing Reports -
Lower Yuba River – Flows are down to about 4000-3800cfs. I
imagine this is going to be the flow for a bit. Flows
are more then fishable from the boat and from the bank if you know where to go.
Wade fishing you have to pick and choose your spots. Clarity is perfect as I like the river with
color. Clarity is definitely in the range where i fish "off color
water" bugs but have plenty of confidence that I can catch fish. Not
fishing small mayflies or caddis patterns. All that said Friday was the last
time I was on the river and I struggled to find fish. The fish did not seem to
be where they should be in what I consider my normal high water spots that I
like to fish from say 4-3000cfs. Not sure if they just haven't found the spots
I was fishing as flows just dropped mid week. They still could of been hunkered
in the deep water on the bottom or I just was fishing the wrong spots...who
knows. We did catch a few, but nothing like I thought we would.
Also the boat ramp at sycamore
is closed and it sounds like will be for awhile as I talked to the attendant
and he said the creek under cut part of the road and his boss doesn't want
anyone in that part of the park...so I can't imagine it is top priority for
Yuba County to re do the road for the ramp. When I asked if they were going to
re do it soon he said ...well I can't imagine any time soon...
There is definitely some
new water... The channel below Sycamore is completely changed and has left the
old channel high and dry and cut a new one that takes a different angle to meet
up with the side channel. Looks like the riffle where the side channel and main
channel come back together is going to be REALLY good. That was the only
glaring difference that I found but it was obvious that many of the riffles
will be VERY different with regards to where the buckets and seams are...though
the course of the river doesn't seem to have changed much any where else.
Saw a few march browns and
caddis flying around and found bug life in the rocks where I got out and
flipped them over. Still some wood and timber floating down river occasionally
as well. Didn't see any fish rise.
Fish should be pretty darn Hungary
so I imagine fishing is going to be REALLY good soon.
Lower Sacramento River
Trout – The River was ramped up for about a week or two to 20,000cfs to make
room for snow melt or dilute toxic muck coming out of the mine up river,
depends on who you talk to. The river has dropped back down to 5000cfs coming
out of Keswick and this should really kick into gear the spring trout fishing. I
will be on the river guiding Wednesday and Thursday so I will have a good idea
about how things are going then but I can’t imagine it won’t be good.
Lower Feather River Spring
Steelhead – Flows coming out of Oroville in the Low Flow are 800cfs and coming
out of the outlet there is 5000cfs. The bump in flows out of the outlet has
pushed any fish that were in the high flow or low river up into the Low flow.
Prior to the flow bump fish were spread throughout the river with some of the
best fishing in the high flow. Fishing should remain good through out the
spring as fish continue to move up the river and prepare to spawn. Swinging
flies and nymphing have both been catching fish. Dry fly fishing should even
get good ounce the caddis start hatching in good numbers.
Lower Sac Striper Fishing
has been slow for the fly angler with the high flows and off color water. I
went out of Butte City and the water is a bit to high and the clarity is still
a bit to brown to have any confidence. I am going to go back out Friday and
poke around in hopes the lower flows will have migrated down and the clarity
will improve. It is going to be a great striper year on the Lower Sac this
spring and summer!
Sports News…I won’t lie I
haven’t been into the tournament as much as previous years. I basically watched
Notre Dame and that was it…I was happy how they played against North Carolina.
I really wanted to see them pull off the upset and get into the final four as
Mike Brey has never made it to the Final Four and he is truly a great coach and
guy from what I can tell.
I have been watching and
inordinate amount of spring training baseball and following like every day
developments of the Giants…I am into baseball right now like house wives get
into days of our lives…Kinda sick to be honest the minutia that is covered by
baseball beat writers and the stuff I read. I just got the Sports Illustrated
Baseball Preview and was totally pissed the giants were on the cover…that is
like such bad mojo it is not even funny. I tore the cover off as soon as I saw
it to ward on the jinks factor….that said I am reading through it presently
before bed each night. They pick the giants #2 in the west loosing in the NL
Championship to the Cubs. I could live with that…all I ever ask for is
interesting and meaningful games through September.
Notre Dame Spring practice
and football in general is creating a lot of drama with the quarterback “controversy”
Malik Zaire and DaShone Kaiser are slugging it out for the starting role,
everyone knew that would happen, but now word is that Brandon Winbush red shirt
freshman is even giving those two a run for the money for #1 or #2…Bottom line
is either Zaire or Kaiser is going to transfer but who?!?! If Zaire Transfer he
sits a year and then has one year to play if Kaiser transfer he sits one plays
2…Also if Zaire ends up being #2 he could be #2 this year, graduate and then
get a free transfer to play one year if he enters an MA program that is not
offered at ND…what Dayne Crist did when he went to Kansas….Going to be very
interesting to see what happens! Spring Game is April 16th … same
day as the Kienes Expo.
Music News…Been buying
vinyl like I won the lottery. Just got the new Brian Fallon solo record and it
is really good! A bit different then Gas Light Anthem stuff, similar to the
Horrible Crowes in a way but not as dark and more acoustic based. The Bruce
Springsteen influence is VERY strong on his solo work…not a bad thing though.
Also got Neil Young’s After the gold rush and have been spinning that pretty
regularly as well as some classic blues albums. My dad gave me a copy of a few
good CD’s as well the New Nathaniel Ratcliffe and the Night Sweats album is
awesome and just a great new take on soul/rock/indie stuff….Not much else
really waiting for my new Explosions In The Sky vinyl to come as pre ordered
their new album so that should be some great sit on the couch and zone out
music…I have a bunch of guide dates coming up so some tip money will be fueling
a trip to the record store I am sure.